The first half of the year for CRY America has been abuzz with a number of awareness and fundraising events. The CRY Dinners in New York and Seattle in May 2011 were a great success, attended by 325 people and raised over $215,000. Indian actors, Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan were our guest speakers at the dinners. Our online fundraising campaign to ‘Make it Same’ for children with disabilities raised close to $15,000. Thank you to all our supporters - donors, volunteers and media in making these events a success. These resources will help ensure lasting change in the lives of underprivileged children in projects across India.

There is lot more to come…our popular annual event, CRY Walk for Child Rights 2011 will be organized by our Volunteer Chapters across 20 cities from June to October this year. CRY Cricket 2011 will be held across 11 cities this year. Do keep logged in to
www.america.cry.org/cryevents to know more about events happening in a city close to you.

By participating in these events you will play your part in restoring to underprivileged children their basic rights to live, learn, grow, play and be protected.

With best wishes,

Shefali Sunderlal
President, CRY America

Upcoming events

CRY Walk and Cricket 2011 – Play for Child Rights

It’s the season to play for child rights. CRY America will have its annual Walk for Child rights across 20 cities in the USA along with Cricket in 11 cities.

Become a Walk or Cricket Fund raiser – Set up your online fund-raising page

Become a Walk or Cricket Team leader. Teams of 10 members get their logo on the T-shirt

Sponsor the Walk or Cricket event or help find event sponsors

Spread the Word about the CRY Walk and Cricket in your city

Volunteer to help organize the Walk and Cricket events

Help with media coverage for the events

Walk with your family and friends on the event day

Past events

CRY America Dinners 2011:

‘Pledge 2011’ was held on May 13 at The Pierre, a Taj Hotel in and ‘Uphaar 2011’ on May 14 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle. Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan were the special guests at both events.
Pledge 2011 was attended by 150 people from New York - New Jersey and Uphaar 2011 was attended by 175 members from the western Washington community, who came together to support CRY America’s work to benefit underprivileged children. Over $215,000 was raised across both Dinner events, that will be directed towards funding several projects that ensure lasting change in the lives of children.

The evenings included talks by Puja Marwaha, CEO of CRY India, Shefali Sunderlal, President of CRY America and keynote addresses by Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan, renowned actors from India. Paintings by famous artists Ram Kumar, Murali Nagapuzha, Nitin Dadrawala and private lunches with Sharmila and Soha sponsored by Vermillion restaurant were auctioned by Sotheby’s at the New York Dinner which raised $43,000.

CRY Philadelphia held the Jewel of India Karaoke Competition 2011 on May 22nd, 2011.

Make it same for (children of) Project Makhla Muktadhara Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled (MMRCD)
CRY America organized its online fundraising campaign - ‘Make it Same’ for a period of 2 months. We raised $14,730 against our target of $20,000.

'Make it Same' is about bringing equality and dignity to the lives of 833 children with disabilities through our partner project MMRCD.

Your support through this campaign will make lasting change possible for children like Iqbal.
See video

Watch legendary actor, Sharmila Tagore and popular actor, Soha Ali Khan
from India talk about their passion for child rights and why they believe in
CRY America.

Monica Kharkar, a CRY America employee shares her experience of a CRY project visit in India

“In Dec 2010, I visited Social Action for Literacy and Health (SALAH) in Bhandup in Mumbai. Right away I was struck by the stark contrast of a typical third world slum with scarcity of water, grave concerns of health and hygiene to that of magic of the city of dreams, the fabulous Mumbai. SALAH deals with the issues of families of daily wage laborers and garbage/ trash pickers.

We met with Mr. Madhukant Pathariya the Project holder of SALAH. An incredibly articulate yet

ordinary person with an extraordinary dedication, intelligence, knowledge of the situation of this community. He himself for many years has lived and worked among daily wage laborers. One of the places we went to at this slum was the education center that offers after school tutoring program for the children of the area who need help with their work at school and a place for children to go to recreation, with a wide variety of subjects from math to music and drawing being tutored. On further discussion with the children present I learnt how 5 girls among the group had attended a self defense workshop imparted by the Mumbai police. The girls could not stop talking about it and were very enthusiastic to show me some moves.

After an excellent interaction with these children we visited a second slum area where women and their children were gathered at the community center. I learnt here here that the girls had formed self help groups. This self help group meets every week and discusses various

issues and learns performing arts. A group of girls enthusiastically performed a song for us.

At the end of my visit I asked Mr. Madhukant, what according to him has been the real essence of CRY’s intervention at SALAH and for him personally the one thing that he values the most? He told me that he has worked many hours fighting to improve the lives of these people and their children. But, he could never really measure the difference his work made. With CRY’s intervention he said, “My team and I now have direction, we know how to organize ourselves, how to set and achieve goals. That really is the great role of CRY. On my way home I could not help but feel proud and humbled both a the same time... proud to be a part of this great mission and humbled ... by the dedication of people like Mr. Mudhukant, by the children’s confidence and will to be that change .. to beat all odds …

Sundaram Tagore for donating a Ram kumar painting for the New York benefit dinner

Aicon Gallery for donating a M.F. Hussain serigraph painting for the New York benefit dinner

One stop Framing (Mr. Shah) for their support for framing our auction paintings at a discounted cost and at a very short notice

Priyanka Mathew from Sotherby's for her support in conducting our auction and making it a huge success

Surat Jewellers for their support in providing us jewellery as auction items

The volunteers at the Seattle and New York Action Centers for their dedication and commitment to pulling off the dinner events so successfully

NetIP North America has chosen CRY America as an Alliance partner. NetIP will support CRY America for the nationwide Walk for Child Rights 2011, starting in June with Action Centers in about 20 cities across the US participating.

The Asian American Fair 2011 partners with CRY America for the cause of child rights. CRY America will be a part beneficiary of this event.
Click here for details on the event

My Occasion and CRY

It is an opportunity for you to share your special day with the cause of underprivileged children and enable lasting change in their lives.

If you would like to donate to CRY America through our monthly donation program called CRY Drops or learn more about it, please click here.

Join us Online

CRY America is a 501c3 registered non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible. It works towards restoring to underprivileged children, especially in India their basic rights to live, to learn, to play, to protection - to a childhood.

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